The first Facebook Messenger bot for property in Australia has arrived
If you are on the hunt for property in Australia, Messenger Bots may help make the process easier.
Property website Domain has launched the first Messenger Bot in Australia for property searches. It allows you to drop a location pin into Messenger to find houses for sale in the vicinity or get the buying guide for any property.
SEE ALSO: Here's how bots work on Facebook Messenger
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To use the bot, you first get in contact with Domain through its Facebook page or directly through Messenger by typing the company name in the search bar. Then click the location pin button to drop your current location or type in an address. The bot will send back properties around this location including a price guide and the ability to click through for more information.
It also allows you to type in a house address and get a buyer's price guide on the property, whether it is for sale or not. This functionality taps into Domain's Home Price Guide, which lets you check out the sale history, rental yield, photos and a price estimate. You access this by clicking through the information the bot provides.
“Consolidating property search into one of the most popular consumer apps creates a whole new experience for Domain’s audience,” Damon Pezaro, chief product officer at Domain, said in an emailed statement. "Creating a Domain bot for Messenger allows a more natural communication interaction and saves consumers time flipping between apps and websites.”
Although Domain's Messenger bot is simplistic, it is a great example of what we can expect from brands pushing into this space. You can not yet refine your search, ask any extra questions or view rental properties with the Messenger bot.
A spokesperson for the company told Mashable Australia there will be further commands developed in the future and that this was just the first iteration of Domain's push into the bot space.
In April, Facebook launched Messenger Bots at its annual developer conference, F8. The main purpose of this new tool is to allow businesses and developers to take advantage of Messenger's technology to interact with users.
Using a software development kit, the tool allows companies to build bots and get their messaging in front of the 900 million users of Messenger. Domain is no doubt one of the first in a long line of Australian tech companies that will experiment with this new platform.
In the U.S., bots launched with partner companies including CNN, Bank of America and Burger King. Each delivers its products -- news, banking information and food -- to customers in an innovative way. These bots also have a long way to go to make them highly useful and intuitive for users.
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Jenni Ryall is Mashable's VP of Content Strategy. She spends her time launching cool, new things such as Mashable Deals and Mashable Reels. On the other days, she is developing strong partnerships with companies including Apple News, Flipboard, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
